


early in the mornings

by updatepls



Category: Orphan Black (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-15
Updated: 2015-07-15
Packaged: 2018-04-05 18:47:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,984
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4190949
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/updatepls/pseuds/updatepls
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Protone! Tony is good for Rachel, and Rachel is weirdly good for Tony. Tony likes Rachel because she's an odd duck, and Rachel likes Tony because he accepts her the way she is. </p><p>And they're in high school! Ensue hilarious Propunk rivalry, Felix/Tony brotp, and appearances from all your faves. Can you believe that?</p>
            </blockquote>





	early in the mornings

**Author's Note:**

> I promise this includes a kiss okay haha bear with me 
> 
> And the scene between the breaks is a flashback. I didn't know how to format it exactly, but yeah. It's Tony having a ~memory.

They always sit like that; never quite touching but obviously together. Today, Tony has his arm draped loosely across the back of Rachel's chair, right ankle resting atop his left leg as he cracks a smile at something Felix says. Rachel is less blatant, her body angled in Tony's direction just enough to notice. She taps away at the phone in her hand, the two of them engaged in completely separate conversations. And for all it looks like, they could be living in completely separate worlds, too. Two separate worlds just happening to occur at very close proximity. Rachel in her clean-cut blouse and heels, Tony in an oversized flannel, indistinguishable from the one he wore yesterday (it might actually _be_ the one he wore yesterday). But, Cosima thinks, watching them from across the table curiously, it must be a jigsaw kinda thing. Opposites attract... and all that.  

The truth is, neither of them questions it too much. It's everyone else that does the questioning.  
  
And Felix - Felix just thinks Tony's mad.  

 

***

 

"Bloody hell, Tony, Rachel? Rachel _Duncan_? Okay… Okay I'm not judgin' just—" a mischievous look quickly replaces his very much appalled one, "What's it _like_ with her? She already looks perpetually ready to kill a man, can't imagine your presence helps with that like, at _all_." 

He begins to laugh exuberantly and Tony shoves him by the shoulder, but another teasing glance in Tony’s direction and Felix is stopped dead in his tracks, "You're fucking serious aren't you? Well. Blow me over."  
  
Tony thinks that maybe he shouldn't have told Felix at all - he'd known very well the grief he’d get - but he'd reasoned that at least if Felix knew then he could forget about breaking it to the others. Tell Felix something about Rachel's personal life and that shit will be common knowledge in under an hour. And not because Felix is a gossip, but because he and Sarah share everything, and _Sarah_ will do anything she can to put Rachel’s knickers in a twist.

Not that Tony thinks she will _succeed_  this time, however; Rachel wouldn’t be with him if she were in any way ashamed of their relationship. Capacity for superhuman coldness aside, she does things with her whole heart or not at all. Besides, Tony doesn't think that _heart_  really has much to do with it, and it's more that Rachel simply doesn't _care_. If she wants something - likes something - then that's the end of it, no one else's opinion matters. And quite frankly, she looks bored to death whenever someone takes the time to air their views on the pair’s unlikely relationship. Bored and slightly _murderous..._ but never ashamed.  
  
Tony imagines telling Felix all of that, but he isn't sure how the younger boy would react.

So God knows why he opts for something he knows he's even _less_ capable of explaining. "Look, it's not like that. She just—" Tony scoops his school bag up from where he'd slung it on the sidewalk to get a better go at Felix, "She just kinda _gets_ me. Okay? So back off."

Tony begins walking again, but Felix is left behind to simply stand there open-mouthed, "She  _gets_ you? Rachel Duncan...  _gets_ you?"

A good few paces ahead of Felix by now, Tony has to turn on his heel to glare at his classmate. He scratches the top of his head, and then suddenly he's looking at Felix all-too-sympathetically before bringing his hand back down to smack against his thigh, "Man, you're just jealous because you won't have anyone to take to prom."  
  
Felix adjusts the straps of his backpack and scoffs at Tony, who's walking up the road backwards. Pressing his lips together, Felix says nothing as Tony promptly bumps into an elderly woman and her timid greyhound.  
  
"Ah, shit! Jesus christ..."  
  
Passing by with his chin held high, Felix gives his final words on the matter, "And _that_ is why I do not believe that the likes of Rachel Duncan will be attending prom with you. Ciao - don't trip over your mullet in the shower," he makes a left down his own street then, muttering under this breath, "'cause God knows _washing_ is going to impress the Queen of England herself."

 

***

 

The bell hasn't even rung yet but already Rachel is standing, bending modestly at the knees and gathering her things. No one thinks anything of it anymore, she's been leaving lunch two minutes early every day that she’s been sitting with them, and now it’s only Tony that eyes her as she locks her phone and puts it away.

Leaning back in his chair he chucks an empty juice carton at Felix, says playfully, " _Damn_ , you make the rest of us look bad!"

He's pushing back onto the hind legs of his chair, keeping himself steady with two fingers on the edge of the table. And Rachel sucks in a breath of air, bored with the commotion but a touch flattered that Tony would rather she stayed, "We're reading _An Inspector Calls_ in English,” she says curtly, for the benefit of the table more than Tony himself.

"What's that got to do with anything?" Sarah retorts, not even bothering to familiarise herself with the conversation topic before jumping down Rachel's throat. She struts up behind Felix and grabs the juice carton from him, chucking it right back at Tony.  
  
"I find it to be a fascinating study of the—" Rachel pauses, eyeing Sarah and her juice-carton-throwing pointedly, "—human character."  
  
"Didn’t bother you when Tony was throwin’ it," Sarah lifts her chin a little, flicking her tongue against her bottom teeth and Tony just stares at her beseechingly, if not a little threateningly. So Sarah sniffs and rolls her eyes, turning away so she can talk to her brother. She can fight that fight any day.  
  
This time the bell actually does ring, the rest of them reluctantly scrambling to their feet around an already ready Rachel. It doesn’t help that Cosima manages to knock the entirety of her belongings to the floor as she stands up, Delphine and Felix dropping to their knees to help her, emitting twin utterances of, "Every fucking lunchtime..." on the way down.  
  
With the group’s attention focused elsewhere, Tony turns back to Rachel, who he finds to be already watching him expectantly. She scrutinizes him for a further few seconds before raising one of her pretty, underworked hands to the collar of his shirt. She untucks it from the t-shirt he wears underneath and smooths it down neatly over his collarbone, meeting his eyes again with a meaning that Tony can’t quite decipher.  
  
He shakes his head and smiles archly at her, sticking out his chin, “What is it, Rach?”  
  
A smirk ghosts over the corner of Rachel’s mouth and she lets the nickname slide in favour of getting her way, “Just come, yes?” she says, voice low enough to keep their conversation private, and then she’s walking away before Tony can even cast up his eyes. Although, unfortunately for Rachel, Tony is quicker, and he steps into her path, putting a hand to her waist.  
  
His expression starts out cocky and affectionate, but it quickly devolves into one of deadly seriousness. They have only got a _second_ after all, “Rachel, I’ll be there. I’ll _totally_ be there. I just—", he shakes his head again, "You know I hate shit like this.”

“Yes,” Rachel replies matter-of-factly, “And I am going to help with that.”  
  
Tony waggles his eyebrows, a necessary expert at re-directing any conversation that makes him feel uneasy, “Oh, really?”  
  
“Yes,” Rachel says, no less austere.  
  
_“Yes?”_ Tony echoes, just for the fun of it, making Rachel glance at the dwindling crowd before replying.  
  
_“Yes,”_ she repeats insistently - humouring him - and if you didn’t know better you might think she were holding back laughter. In the end, all she has to do is open her mouth to speak for a smile to flash across her face. She gives a light scoff and averts her gaze from Tony, who is laughing openly at - no, with;  _with_ \- his odd, _odd_ girlfriend.

She finds his eyes again and clears her throat, expression utterly composed once more, “Are you quite done? I’m going to be late," she says as though Tony had been the only one laughing.  
  
Tony would most likely _not_  have been done, and would probably have tried to keep Rachel smiling as long as possible, only they are _rudely_ interrupted. Coming up behind him, the jock of jocks - otherwise known as _Paul Dierden_ \- claps a hand to his shoulder, “Yeah, Tony. You're making the lady late. That’s very irresponsible," cocking his head, he looks to the girl that ‘terminated’ their relationship last summer, "You really got time for that, Rachel?”

Tony shrugs him off aggressively and turns to face the boy, “She’s got _plenty_ of time now she’s not wasting it on your sorry ass.”  
  
Paul laughs and raises his palms, all mock-benevolence, as Tony advances on him wordlessly. Meanwhile, Rachel just closes her eyes for a beat and breathes in deeply through her nose. She appreciates Tony’s protective side - no one else has ever been willing to show such offense on her part - but truthfully she really _is_ interested in J. B. Priestly and his timeless observations on the human condition... _and_ she can take care of herself.  
  
By now, the lunch hall is beginning to empty out, and soon they will be the only people left standing there. It is this more than anything that makes Rachel finally sidestep Tony and put herself neatly between the two of them, one hand on Tony’s chest, her head turned in the opposite direction, and eyes practically boring holes into Paul’s skull.  
  
“I suggest _both_  of you are making me late," she offers while looking at Paul only, voice filled with an unspilt venom. She raises her eyebrows and smiles a tight smile, dangerously polite. Eventually, she folds her hands back in front of her body - Tony now standing behind her - and flicks her hair out of her face with a practised twitch of the neck. And last, purely because she cannot resist the opportunity, “Where’s Sarah, hmm?”  
  
At that Paul really does start to back away, slinging his gym bag over his shoulder with a final, “You two are sick.”    
  
But Rachel just smiles again: you really can make people do anything you like as long as you know their weak spots. And Sarah is a big weak spot for Paul. (Surely he must know that Sarah would never touch him again were she to see how he still hankers after her _nemesis_ , no less?)    
  
Satisfied, Rachel finally turns her back on Paul - at which point the hall really _is_ empty - and Tony thinks it _might_ just be safe to kiss her. Of course she's still simmering and he’s still wound up, but they get each other like that. That’s where they connect, that’s what he'd _meant_ when he'd told Felix that Rachel _understands_ him. And a situation like _Big Dick Paul_  makes the perfect example: he's always on Tony’s back, always talking shit about Rachel being 'different' _,_ and still they both have the bravery to be who they really are - without apology.

Not that they’ve ever _said_ as much, but there’s a respect there; a solidarity. Rachel’s downright weird - they’re not _wrong -_  but Tony _likes_ her like that. And he’s pretty sure that she likes him the way he is, too. Even though he daren‘t ask her to explain how that can be in case he’s wrong and has been making this whole thing up for the last two months. Although he's pretty sure he hasn’t... 

However, he would definitely feel _more_ sure about that were she actually kissing him _back_ right now...

Tony withdraws with a look of confusion, and Rachel just blinks at him, stoic, says, “Not at school.”  
  
“Rachel, there’s no one h—”  
  
Despite her words, Tony is cut off mid-protestation by Rachel pressing her lips firmly against his.

The element of surprise makes his mouth fall open slightly, and Rachel takes it as an invitation. Her eyes slide shut and eventually Tony finds his footing, closing his eyes and letting his hands rest against Rachel’s hips to pull her closer. In response, Rachel lets her own hands gravitate to Tony's shoulders, fingers lacing with the soft locks she finds there, and for a minute, Tony is taken out of his mind to wonder if he's even _washed_ it in the last four days. However, the memory of Rachel's expression when he'd once suggested that she secretly preferred him ragged quickly dispels his worries.

Instead, Tony tries to relax, taking the time to appreciate Rachel being the one to initiate the kiss in a place where they could easily be seen. 

Rachel wonders what they must look like - two of the scariest kids at school caught in a deep display of affection for one another - but then Tony is gently coaxing her mouth open with his own and she really doesn't care. 

Gentle; always so gentle. The first time they’d kissed, Rachel had expected him to be rough, callous, possibly rather _rushed_. But it turned out that she had been the one to grow impatient; had been the one to run her tongue along his lower lip until he let her in. She wouldn’t change him though, wouldn’t change a thing about him. Because Rachel senses that Tony takes his time because he wants to _remember_. Wants to _experience_. And the feeling of being  _savoured_ is unlike any other that Rachel has known before.  

Remembering that the two of them actually have classes, Rachel pulls back with a certain amount of serenity about her features. With a careful finger, she wipes at the lipstick she knows must surely be smudged around her mouth, and lets her eyes wander idly over Tony’s features, allowing herself to take him in in this quiet moment. A moment with the world seeming as though at arm’s length; all encompassing, but somehow unable to penetrate. Just the two of them standing to one side of the vast, open hall. 

“If you run very, _very_ quickly—” Rachel pauses to take a deep breath, slightly oxygen-deprived but no less controlled for it, “—you _might_ just be on time for Chemistry." 

She finishes with a seductively languid tone, and a slow, unbidden smile pulls at the corners of Tony's mouth, “How’d you know I have Chemistry?”

Rachel just cocks her head to one side - almost imperceptible - and raises a single eyebrow. And Tony thinks that’s as good as _winking_ in Rachel Duncan’s repertoire of facial expressions.  
  
“Hey, I’m not _running_  anywhere,” Tony replies at last, snapping out of his momentary, Rachel-induced haze, “makes my binder do crazy shit. Honestly, I’d rather have detention, babe.”  
  
“At this rate we shall both be in detention,” Rachel replies, voice rather more soft than usual, as though completely detached from the situation and not talking about getting the first black mark against her name since she joined the school.   
  
“Well, I’m not keeping you!” Tony points out, entirely truthful. “Am I just that charming?” he adds, somehow sidling even closer to Rachel who is looking at him a little oddly, a little intensely - even for her.  
  
“No,” Rachel says tersely, and Tony thinks that from the look in her eye she might just be attempting _humour_. Either that or—  
  
“Oh, I see...” Tony tells her, finally able to place her expression as a terribly wolfish grin takes hold of his face, “Not that _charming_... Just that _hot_... I see how it is. Loved you and left you.”  
  
“That is _not_ what is happening here,” Rachel counters, exceptionally unconvincingly, and actually _glancing at Tony’s lips_. Nevertheless, self control is Rachel’s strongest suit, and she pulls her hand mirror and lipstick from her bag.  
  
Seeing this new development, Tony thinks the next best thing after continuing to make out with Rachel would be continuing to mess with her, and fortunately, he is struck with brand new inspiration.  
  
“Can I do it?” he asks capriciously, showing his pointy teeth.  
  
Rachel eyes him almost with interest, as if trying to discern what could possess a person to make them ask such a question.  
  
“Oh, come on. I’ve watched you put that red shit on a million times.”  
  
Again, Rachel remains silent, rolling her eyes and untwisting the expensive tube before beginning to apply it herself.  
  
“What if...” Tony draws out the words, letting them echo around the empty lunch hall as he tries for another option, "What if you put it on me?”  
  
Still nothing.  
  
“What if you don’t wear it at all? Then we can make out as long as you like,” Tony says, ducking his head to try to catch Rachel’s gaze.  
  
“Well," Rachel says, at last looking up at him before pretending to consider it, “then I wouldn’t be able to do _this_.”

She folds her compact back together and puts it away, and before Tony can ask what the hell she’s talking about she’s got one hand on his left shoulder for balance, and her freshly painted lips against his cheek, leaving a perfectly defined print.  
  
Tony grins, his heart swelling inside his chest a little, “I thought the idea was to _not_ get me in detention?”  
  
Rachel lifts her shoulders the slightest bit, “It would seem the... Paul issue... is the greater problem today.”    
  
“Aw. You  _care_ about me,” Tony jibes at her.  
  
“I do no such thing,” Rachel throws back over her shoulder, finally walking away and in the direction of the English department.

“...Don’t be late...” Rachel’s accented voice floats back across the hall, and it’s all Tony can do to not jump out of his goddamn skin when Felix leans over his shoulder a second later and whispers in his ear, “Late where, lover boy?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Was Felix standing around the corner the whole time? No. Fear not.
> 
> Do you want to know where Rachel is taking Tony? Definitely. You definitely do.
> 
> Please let me know what you thought of the first chapter! I feel like I'm very much going out on a limb here writing a full length fic for an almost non-existent pairing, so any thoughts or comments you can offer would really mean the world :) <3
> 
> And yes, I did name this story after Rachel's theme song. I'm sorry. It just seemed like the perfect compromise between sexy and tender for these two...! Forgive me.

**Author's Note:**

> Was Felix standing around the corner the whole time? No. Fear not. 
> 
> And yes. I did name this story after Rachel's theme song. I'm sorry. It just seemed like the perfect compromise between sexy and tender for these two...! Forgive me. 
> 
> (Originally this was going to be 3 chapters, but it's been stuck as a oneshot for months now, so I've marked it as complete (for the time being). I definitely may update one day and I definitely have plans for future chapters, but they're just not happening at the moment. Reviews are still extremely welcome though! Obviously this pairing is basically non-existent, so any feedback would be incredible.)


End file.
